This volume examines the political role of trade unions in seven African countries and the various ways in which they seek to influence political parties and the state. Whereas some, like the Nigeria Labour Congress, push for a political party of their own, others, such as COSATU in South Africa, opt to engage with the power struggles in the ruling party. In Namibia and Uganda unions have been incorporated by a one-party dominated state while in Ghana, unions insist on being autonomous. There is also a move towards autonomy in Senegal, despite the plurality of unions with party affiliations. In the case of Zimbabwe, unions took the lead in creating an alternative alliance in opposition to a repressive state. Trade Unions and Party Politics provides a finely tuned critique of the impact achieved by these strategies, within the context of both the unique forces shaping them and the looming shadow of the new global economy.

This is an introduction to the politics of trade unionism in contemporary Britain, assessing the major changes in legislation, policing and attitudes since 1979 as well as the broader social and economic trends to which these have been a response.

This book serves as a sequel to two distinguished volumes on capitalism: Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism (Cambridge, 1999) and Order and Conflict in Contemporary Capitalism (1985). Both volumes took stock of major economic challenges advanced industrial democracies faced, as well as the ways political and economic elites dealt with them. However, during the last decades, the structural environment of advanced capitalist democracies has undergone profound changes: sweeping deindustrialization, tertiarization of the employment structure, and demographic developments. This book provides a synthetic view, allowing the reader to grasp the nature of these structural transformations and their consequences in terms of the politics of change, policy outputs, and outcomes. In contrast to functionalist and structuralist approaches, the book advocates and contributes to a 'return of electoral and coalitional politics' to political economy research.

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Peter Dorey examines the attitudes and policies of the Conservative Party towards the trade unions from the nineteenth century onwards. He links these to wider political and economic circumstances, and studies the key personalities involved. There has always been disagreement within the Conservative Party as to how it should deal with the trade unions. These disagreements have, in large part, reflected divisions within British Conservatism itself.

This book describes the levels of unequal electoral participation in thirty-six countries worldwide, examines possible causes of this phenomenon, and discusses its consequences.